The present invention relates generally to remanufacturing toner cartridges, and more particularly to techniques for replacing a toner cartridge shutter during the remanufacturing process.
In the electrophotographic industry, there is a growing market for the remanufacture and refurbishing of various types of printing or copying components such as toner cartridges, ink cartridges, magnetic rollers, seals, and the like. Toner cartridges, once spent, are unusable for their originally intended purpose. Without a refurbishing process, they would simply be discarded, even though the cartridge itself may still have potential life. As a result, techniques have been developed specifically to address this issue. These processes may entail, for example, the disassembly of the various structures of the cartridge, replacing toner, cleaning, adjusting or replacing any worn components and reassembling the cartridge.
Toner cartridges for use in electrophotographic imaging apparatus typically include an optical photoconductor (OPC) drum as part of the cartridge. The OPC drum is commonly hidden behind a moveable shutter designed to protect the OPC drum from being exposed to light or contacted by a user when the cartridge is not installed in an imaging device. Interaction between the drum shutter and mating features in the imaging device causes the shutter to automatically retract as the cartridge is installed in the imaging device. The presence and operation of the drum shutter are important to the proper function of the toner cartridge.
On some toner cartridges, such as the HP3500 and HP3700 toner cartridges, the drum shutter includes a thin, flexible polymer film supported by a rigid steel arm. Due to the fragile nature of this polymer film, damage, and the resulting loss of proper function, are likely to occur during post-use handling, shipping and storage. A recharger, or remanufacturer, of toner cartridges receiving such a damaged toner cartridge must choose between replacing the drum shutter film or scrapping the entire cartridge. It is therefore desireable to provide a replacement for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) drum shutter film.